BitDefender Total Security 2008 Review

PC users tired of the in-your-face antics of other security suites will appreciate the substance-over-style approach of BitDefender Total Security 2008. It has little flash, but BitDefender is nonetheless one of the most substantive and detailed security packages we've tried lately. Its default settings offer good control over spam, viruses, your firewall, and more, and the package gives you a lot to tinker with under the hood if you've got the know-how.

We had some minor installation issues, such as repeated popups from our OS stating that the software didn't pass Windows Logo testing to verify compatibility with Windows XP. We continued, regardless, and noted no ill effects. BitDefender notified us at one point that it was incompatible with a spam-fighting product we had loaded and offered to remove it, but it allowed us to continue installation anyway—unlike Trend Micro's Internet Security Pro. Following the installation, BitDefender quickly downloaded updates without any problems.

The BitDefender settings interface is stark—black writing and grey buttons on a white background—but functional. As in most utility packages, customization categories are displayed as tabs on the left side of the screen: Anti-Virus, Firewall, Anti-Spam, Privacy Control, Parental Control, and Update. Tabs above the main screen change to display pertinent subcategories; for example, Anti-Virus has tabs for Shield, Scan, Exceptions, and Quarantine. While some categories contain Advanced tabs, there's also an Advanced button down at the bottom left screen corner. It's for generic controls, however, such as whether to load BitDefender upon startup, so it probably should have been given a different name.

Some settings would be clear even to security novices, but others would benefit from detailed, context-sensitive help, such as whether to allow specific Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) package types like echo replies, redirects, or unreachable destination hosts. The help system does discuss these, but it isn't available from within the settings part of the program, where an explanation is most needed. The program also assumes a certain degree of prior computer knowledge. (For example, the acronym "ICMP" itself isn't spelled out.)

We liked the depth of the firewall, antispam, and antivirus sections of BitDefender. You can edit a rule under the Firewall/Traffic tab, for instance, not merely to allow or deny a program's interaction with the Web, but specifying the protocol it's allowed to use, as well as the ports and source/destination addresses. BitDefender's Anti-Spam module maintains separate Friends and Spammers lists, of course, but also Bayesian filters that improve over time as they build rules from outgoing e-mail. Privacy Control includes both an antiphishing feature that scans sites you visit for potential threats, and an antiphishing toolbar for Internet Explorer. (No such toolbar is included for Firefox or Opera, however.)

The TuneUp tools combine several that you'd expect to see in security packages (Clean Internet Files, Shred Files) with others more appropriately found in "Swiss Army knife" hard drive utility packages, such as a Defrag Disks tool and a Clean Registry utility. It should be noted that this group of programs has the least functionality in BitDefender; they all feature few options and little information. In fact, Defrag Disks itself provides nothing more than a link to the feature-barren Windows defragmenter. On the plus side, we do like the full-featured BackUp utility. With its full and incremental backups, scheduling system, and ability to restore easily to any destination you choose, this is an attractive bonus.

One of the weakest elements in BitDefender was, curiously, among the strongest with most of its competition: its Security Center screen. This is usually a location for gathering pieces of important information from elsewhere in the suite, summing it all up, then making recommendations for rules and scans before allowing the user to decide whether to act on them. Instead, BitDefender's Security Center simply gives an often opaque one- or two-word status summary on security, parental-control, tuning up, and backing up. (What possible relevance does "Protected" under Parental Control have, if you've unchecked and therefore disabled the control for it? Shouldn't it show "Disabled," instead?) The rest of the screen is devoted to Quick Tasks, a choice of icons associated with the Security, BackUp, and TuneUp tools.

Still, if you can live without a fancy central interface, BitDefender Total Security 2008 is a very good choice. It's well-designed where it counts: under the hood.